Zenderoudi, Charles Hossein

Here, the figure of a stylized lion juxtaposed against a solar background emerges from a system of minute marks. Although the sun and lion had served as a Persian dynastic emblem since the 19th century, Zenderoudi associated them with Sufism. He has identified the standard held by the lion in this work as a reference to the zolfaghar, the two-pronged sword of Hazrat ‘Ali, who is claimed by most Sufi orders as their spiritual progenitor. In 1960, the year Zenderoudi created Sun and Lion, the French government awarded him a scholarship to attend the École des Beaux-arts in Paris. Iranian-inspired iconography continued to inform the works he made in Paris during the 1960s.